The titanosaur sauropod
Bonatitan reigi is redescribed. The material collected, originally interpreted
as pertaining to two different individuals, is reorganised in five individuals,
and the original type specimen is separated into three different individuals.
One of the braincases is designated as a new type specimen. Some materials are
described by the first time (sacral ribs, distal caudal, chevrons, metacarpals,
astragalus and metatarsals), others reinterpreted as different bones (‘ulna’
and ‘radius’). The diagnosis of B. reigi is emended, removing some of the
original characters (longitudinal groove located on the suture between the
parietals that continues posteriorly over the supraoccipital to the foramen
magnum) and adding some new (small paired pits on the frontals and posterior
ridge of the metacarpal IV). The phylogenetic analysis does not support B.
reigi as a member of the Saltasaurinae, but rather as a basal member of a broad
clade of sauropods that in turn is recovered as the sister group of the
Saltasauridae.